Late December is often a time of great
celebration. No matter what your faith or customs may be, there's
always an extra emphasis on enjoying time with our loved ones this
season, as we prepare to close the book on one year and eagerly
welcome another.
But, inevitably, the closing out of the
year also becomes a time of solemn reflection, to remember what we've
lost while cherishing what we still have. 2014 somehow feels like a
disproportionately painful year for the filmmaking community; The
tragic premature deaths of geniuses like Robin Williams and Philip
Seymour Hoffman punctuating an already long list of cinema giants who
finally left us after significant, fruitful lives.
Perhaps that's why it's been so much on
my mind as I've frequented the movies this year. I don't want to be
responsible for giving anyone a case of the holiday blues, but it's
been impossible for me not to notice a similar thread running through
a number of 2014's major releases; A thread about the way people deal
with loss, process grief, and ultimately find closure; A thread about
how mourning varies from individual to individual, yet is universally
human.
A pair of distinctive and radically
different films that are currently in limited release,
Wild
and
Song of the Sea, suddenly seem like distant cousins when
viewed through this thematic prism.
